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Are men funnier than women?

Started by Kryton, October 31, 2019, 04:20:20 PM

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Total Members Voted: 14

Kryton

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-50221046
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336735385_Sex_differences_in_humor_production_ability_A_meta-analysis

According to the BBC (via research gate) men are much funnier than women.

QuoteResearchers from Aberystwyth University and the University of North Carolina analysed 28 studies which looked at how funny around 5,000 people were.

They wanted to see whether the stereotype that men are funnier than women was true.

Writing in Psychology Today, lead researcher Dr Gil Greengross said: "This stereotype is shared by both men and women - but of course, just because it exists does not mean it is true."

In many of the studies they looked at, men and women were asked to write a funny caption to accompany a cartoon - and then independent judges rated their funniness without knowing their gender.

Is this true? My girlfriend is quite funny and I've known some funny women over the years and there's a few women on here who are a great bunch of lads. But is the average bloke funnier than the average woman?

I'll leave that to you lot to argue about discuss sensibly.

checkoutgirl

Not politically correct but I think men are more driven to be stand up comedians and are more likely to have a more brutal, nihilist worldview and sense of humour which probably makes them funnier. You get the odd outlier like Maria Bamford or Julia Davis who are easily as twisted and fucked up and funny than nearly any man out there. But overall they must be in the minority.

So if I had a gun to my head I would say that on average men are funnier than women.

There's also a theory I remember hearing which is men prefer to make jokes and women prefer to laugh at jokes. Obviously not a hard and fast rule but it does seem to have a dollop of truth to it.

Zetetic

The bit actually relevant to beginning to understand the claim being made: d=0.321 isn't huge:
https://rpsychologist.com/d3/cohend/

Not 'much funnier' but "given a random man and a random woman, you're slightly more likely to find the man's caption funnier than the woman's".

I guess the interesting question is how much of any difference is produced through gender and cultural treatment and training - particularly since we know that in many ways girls are often given more social verbal input than boys (and tend to show greater verbal ability than age-matched boys - not that I know the effect sizes here off the top of my head).

Buelligan

I think men are definitely funny.

New folder

According to research, men also rape more than women, so I wouldn't pat yourselves on the back just yet.

Buelligan

Hahah, I'm not saying that dusty old CaB meme, even though it's been presented on a plate. 

Cuellar


greenman

Quote from: checkoutgirl on October 31, 2019, 04:27:08 PM
Not politically correct but I think men are more driven to be stand up comedians and are more likely to have a more brutal, nihilist worldview and sense of humour which probably makes them funnier. You get the odd outlier like Maria Bamford or Julia Davis who are easily as twisted and fucked up and funny than nearly any man out there. But overall they must be in the minority.

So if I had a gun to my head I would say that on average men are funnier than women.

There's also a theory I remember hearing which is men prefer to make jokes and women prefer to laugh at jokes. Obviously not a hard and fast rule but it does seem to have a dollop of truth to it.

I would guess the biggest difference is the kind of social interaction people have, men/boys tending to be more openly competitive and attention hungry in such situations, especially at school age.

I'm guessing if you asked people howo funny they thought they were then the results would be even more biased towards men.

Captain Z

Women are always saying they want a man who can make them laugh so don't start complaining if we got really good at it.

Chollis


purlieu

Quote from: checkoutgirl on October 31, 2019, 04:27:08 PM
Not politically correct but I think men are more driven to be stand up comedians
I think this is true. I'd say in social situations, I tend to find men make jokes far more than women, and that matches up with experience of being a boy at school and all the other boys constantly feeling they have to be funny and entertain / insult everyone as often as possible. There's more of a social expectation for boys and men to be funny.

On the other hand, I think the funniest people I've ever known have mostly been women, so from my own experience they're actually better at it.


Buelligan

I think being funny includes some risk-taking, you open yourself up to derision, attack, whatevs.  IME, women already get more than enough of that just by breathing and learn from day one not to put their heads above the parapet.  Women who do are very often characterised as attention seekers and a bit weird and uppity, whereas men who behave similarly as viewed as confident and a good laugh.  I think you have to add that to the calculations.

thenoise


Janie Jones

Quote from: Buelligan on October 31, 2019, 04:57:19 PM
I think being funny includes some risk-taking, you open yourself up to derision, attack, whatevs.  IME, women already get more than enough of that just by breathing and learn from day one not to put their heads above the parapet.  Women who do are very often characterised as attention seekers and a bit weird and uppity, whereas men who behave similarly are viewed as confident and a good laugh.  I think you have to add that to the calculations.
I can't put it better than Buelligan, what she's said is spot on.



idunnosomename

YES but

only because the PATRIARCHY decide what funny is.

ahhh.

Twed

Quote from: Buelligan on October 31, 2019, 04:57:19 PM
I think being funny includes some risk-taking, you open yourself up to derision, attack, whatevs.  IME, women already get more than enough of that just by breathing and learn from day one not to put their heads above the parapet.  Women who do are very often characterised as attention seekers and a bit weird and uppity, whereas men who behave similarly as viewed as confident and a good laugh.  I think you have to add that to the calculations.
I think this plus men still essentially run the world and still have a "silly little filly!" attitude towards things, and a lot of women's success is based around how attractive/sexually available to men in power the women are. The days of a woman's value being tied to her attractiveness are not over yet, if they ever will be. And that's just in terms of the old power structures. In more modern world where (for example) a funny woman puts out her comedy herself on social media, she'll be destroyed as soon as incels disagree with any opinion or statement that she makes.

Quote from: Kryton on October 31, 2019, 05:28:10 PM
Apologies I just saw it on the BBC and thought I'd bring it here, didn't know it's been discussed to death.
Sorry. It's not you. It's this constant rotation of articles, often with some shitty idiot's attention-seeking opinion attached.

easytarget

They're better at BANTS eh, eh LADS bit of FUCKING BANTS!

If Clarkson and Colin Hunt count as 'funny' then yeah, team XY generates *loads* more of that output, so they win by weight and volume but not quality. Well done lads.

Kryton

Quote from: Twed on October 31, 2019, 05:33:10 PM
Sorry. It's not you. It's this constant rotation of articles, often with some shitty idiot's attention-seeking opinion attached.

Understood. I didn't mean for any of this to come across smug either, I genuinely think there's some brilliant women in comedy. The Fawlty towers thread reminded me how good Prunella Scales and Connie booth are. Amelia Bulmore, Julia Davis, Olivia Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Sophie Winkleman, Felicity Montagu, Pauline McLynn are all at the top of my list of great and funny performers. Just off the top of my head.

I'm not so huge on stand up comedy, I much prefer sit-coms so my knowledge is lacking somewhat but Sara Pascoe is great.

I know there's a ton of incels who think that women 'should know their place', but they can get fucked. Hopefully this doesn't turn into one of those threads, I'd arguably watch any of the above and I'm glad culture is shifting and we're not stuck in some 1970's feverish male-dominated scenario.

BlodwynPig


thenoise

Men have banter, women are bitches
Men are self-deprecating, women have low self esteem

My mum is very clever at puns, but outside of people she knows people often assume she has genuinely misunderstood, and explain to her why she has got it wrong while trying not to laugh. Very frustrating.

Kelvin

My two cents; loads of women are very funny, but generally speaking their humour is quite different from the styles of humour men use and laugh hardest at. Meaning, surprise surprise, lots of men think women aren't funny, and society as a whole only highlights certain styles of female comedy that aligns more with the accepted masculine styles.

Men are certainly more needy and competitive, in my experience. More eager to make whole groups laugh, which probably also affects the ratio of high profile male / female comedians.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Buelligan on October 31, 2019, 04:57:19 PM
I think being funny includes some risk-taking, you open yourself up to derision, attack, whatevs.  IME, women already get more than enough of that just by breathing and learn from day one not to put their heads above the parapet.  Women who do are very often characterised as attention seekers and a bit weird and uppity, whereas men who behave similarly as viewed as confident and a good laugh.  I think you have to add that to the calculations.

This. One of the funniest person I have ever known was my ex-gf. She used to get sick of being called 'feisty'; an adjective she'd say was never used to describe men with a bit of spirit.

bgmnts

I'm one of those even by male standards who just HAS to try and be funny all the time, probably to the point of pathology, ironically not really possessing the most rudimentary of humour making facilities, to paraphrase Stewart Lee.

I definitely notice women laugh at men's jokes than men at wonen's or men at men's or women at women's. Probably an ego thing?

wooders1978

On anecdotel evidence I'd have to say "yes"  - this doesn't mean women are not funny though, so chill out, tarts

Twit 2

Quote from: Buelligan on October 31, 2019, 04:57:19 PM
I think being funny includes some risk-taking, you open yourself up to derision, attack, whatevs.  IME, women already get more than enough of that just by breathing and learn from day one not to put their heads above the parapet.  Women who do are very often characterised as attention seekers and a bit weird and uppity, whereas men who behave similarly as viewed as confident and a good laugh.  I think you have to add that to the calculations.

+1

Quote from: Twed on October 31, 2019, 04:54:01 PM
Oh my fucking god every four months the same boring stupid fucking question FUCK

https://www.google.com/search?q=cookdandbombd+are+women+funny+site:www.cookdandbombd.co.uk&hl=en&sxsrf=ACYBGNTGjY8m4wy_4bwILXDqJ5_LsPgV6A:1572540818549&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy9YiH-8blAhUDwVkKHcb9BJsQrQIoBDAAegQIARAM&biw=1920&bih=970&dpr=2

Not a very funny post. Are you a woman?

Gurke and Hare

This is bullshit. How can you scientifically measure something that is entirely fucking subjective? What's the SI unit for how funny someone is?

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Re: Gurke and Hare - That's the whole point, I suppose. It's a shit-stirring baity kinda question with a series of individual personal answers.

As far as my own individual personal answer, I'm not sure whether I agree that most of the most funny ones never breakthrough cos patriarchy. It's difficult to know. I am definitely prepared to conceive that certain cliques will gatekeep, and likewise that some avenues and formats were designed by men for men and have almost imperceptibly made it easier for men to be successful in them. I also know, conversely that people running comedy nights and open mic stand up locally are so desperate to have female participation.

I can see a certain style of humour that women seem to like more than men, which is the Millican / Hart / Wood / Snack the Pony comedy of recognition, where there is a sort of giggly 'Oh yeah haha that's me thats me that that's me that's so me' satisfaction of having a heightened version of your own life (or the embarrassing bits) reflected back at you. In contrast, I can neither identify with it, nor do I seek that satisfaction from that dynamic in a comedy, meaning it has less value to me.

Then there is the Julia Davis / Catherine Tate / Fleabag / Scanlan end which is really nasty, like a cold viciousness which I can't get on with either, in comparison to the way appalling men are usually afforded moments of vulnerability which allow you to see how they became the monsters they are.

Men seem to prefer their male comedy characters to be ego maniacs who think they are better than they are, and are repeatedly embarrassed for comic effect.

I think the question of what different people find funny is interesting but given the divide here we should focus on the fact most stuff without a central character or from a sole writer has a wide crossover appeal men and women enjoy, and there is no evidence at all that women have failed to hit the same stands as men in that regard.